The effects of service quality on customer satisfaction and recommendation intention: Domestic versus international customer

Understanding the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction and recommendation intentions is important for managers in the hospitality industry. Although extensive research has been conducted to discuss these issues, they have yet to elucidate the differences in the symmetric and asymmetric relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction, as well as recommendation intention among different customer types. Therefore, this study compares the effects of three service quality dimensions, namely infrastructure, room, and interaction quality, on customer satisfaction and recommendation intention across domestic and international customers in China. The data is derived from 4624 customer satisfaction questionnaires in five-star hotels, and partial least squares structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis are used to elucidate further insights. The results revealed significant differences between the effects of interaction quality on customer satisfaction and recommendation intention, with a substantially stronger effect observed among domestic customers (symmetric relationship). Moreover, the combination of service quality dimensions formulated to influence customer satisfaction and recommendation intention varies among customer types (asymmetric relationship). The study demonstrated that different customer types could moderate the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction, and recommendation intention. The results obtained are valuable for researchers to conduct further studies and for hotel managers to develop improvement strategies to enhance satisfaction and recommendation intention.